V3 Chapter 71

Rain was at a loss.

It seems like my plan of achieving supreme by reaching all S status backfired on me.

Or perhaps, this was inevitable since the moment I took up the [Predation] skill…?

“I don’t know if I should be happy about this or not…”

Feeling frustrated, he raised his leg, and stomped on the still-alive Orc beside him that seemed to be struggling to stand up. And with a gory splat, the Orc’s head burrowed on the ground with the force of his stomp. He heard bones breaking and the back of the Orc’s head had caved in.

Qualifications, Requirement, Achievements.

Just what kind of thing would I need to do to obtain the necessary achievement to evolve then? I don’t know.

Rain shook his head, chasing away all the thoughts that occupied his head. The more he thinks about it, the more annoyed he becomes. He couldn’t find an answer, nor could anyone give it to him. Not Sylphy nor even the Grimoire could. It seems like his situation was something that had never happened before. And even if it did, they don’t seem to have any authority to access it in their so-called Library of Knowledge.

A human evolving, that’s a piece of information that cannot be divulged or known to anyone, especially a mortal. And thus, it’s a knowledge that is out of their reach, even with the Grimoire’s connection to the Akashic Library. Its protection program must be quite ahead of its access. As for how he would proceed from now on, he can only test it out and try by himself.

Well, even if there was indeed a shortcut, it's not something he could easily take up. The pursuit of strength is not a race, nor does it has any shortcuts. He knows that. And if one tried to force their way through it, there would be grave consequences.

Either way, since I don’t know how to raise my level, and my status attributes as well stagnated, I can only raise my skills.

This is the only thing that I can raise to continue becoming stronger.

I’ll just take it slowly, and I’m sure I would be able to find a way to break through my limit, as I go by with my life.

Rain let out a sigh and turned his attention on the spoils. Orcs have tough muscles and flesh, displaying their superhuman strength. However, once the magic power dissipated after death, their flesh becomes tender and delicious. Thus, it was considered a high-level cooking ingredient even in the mortal world. And he could attest to their taste. Even the highest grade of pork back on Earth can barely be compared to them. Hence, encountering a group of Orcs on this trip is a fortune.

Rain didn’t want to waste them, and aside from a few that Cyan defeated personally, he stored the others in his Inventory. Cyan happily returned to her large, blob original form, a big ball of gelatinous slime as she slowly devoured the Orcs one by one. In this form, she truly looks like an ordinary Giant Slime.

Because eating three Orcs simultaneously would need a while to be completely digested inside her, Rain decided to take a rest. However, after thinking about it, he walked over, and channeled his magic power in her body directly, to help her quicken the digesting process.

Though she can do it without his help, still, with the help of his magic power, she can absorb things faster. Though, every time seeing as how the corpses inside her body rotated, it looks like a washing machine at work.

Cyan quivered and though, she didn’t say anything, focusing all her attention entirely on absorbing the Orcs, Rain still felt joy and gratefulness transmitting to him from her.

On the outside, she just looked like she was shaking, but thanks to his Mana Perception skill, he could tell that she was absorbing mana continuously.

With these Orcs, he was certain that Cyan’s power would once again increase significantly.

Though, not as broken as his [Predation] ability, Cyan’s [Mimic Predation] not only enables her to transform to anything she eats, she can also absorb attributes from the monster just like how [Predation] does. Though, the effect is not as dramatic as his ability. The attributes she could absorb are at most, at 1- 2% of the monster’s stats. And only the attribute that the monster she devoured she excels in. It seems like it’s got something to do with the magic power she had absorbed. However, once stacked, even fine sands would become a mountain.

That’s why Rain was certain that Cyan’s potential can surpass all the monsters he had seen up until now. After all, he was the best example of it. Even if her [Mimic Predation] is not as broken as his [Predation], it still possesses the same nature.

After channeling enough magic power, he went out to look for a good place to continue his training as well, while waiting for her to completely absorb the Orcs. Finally, he found a good place under a large tree with good shade.

After sitting on the grass that seemed to be quite as soft as if laded with soft leather, he made his usual routine, checking the status of the Lamian Village, and collecting the piled up gold that was earned from doing simple missions and tasks- mostly about creating things such as clothing, lumber, and metal works.

As for the production itself, this is something he doesn’t need to be directly involved in since the Lamians would do the work for him. He only needs to collect the gold earned after the work was finished. And just like usual, another task appeared, and he would just click on the small workshops reflected on the screen, where the Lamians would then start to work again.

After that, he also collected the accumulated ores in the mine, and food in the field, along with the fruits and herbs from growing trees and plants in the surrounding area.

It looked as if he was just playing a simulation game on his smartphone, however, it was happening in real-time.

Whatever he does, or makes in the game is also reflected in reality.

I think I was told to upgrade both Mill and Quarry… and I think I finally have enough resources and money to upgrade them, so let’s do it.

With a press on the upgrade button, Gold and resources were reduced by a lot, and a small clock-like hung above the icons belonging to both Mill and the Quarry. Rain also wanted to upgrade more buildings. However, for the time being, he avoids doing so. Most of the resources and gold were poured into building a cemented wall that encircles the village. That was his current goal.

The reinforced wall was almost halfway. And well, though it might not finish before the Winter Season comes, it should not be a problem to at least create enough to surround the village nonetheless.

As long as they can build a defensive wall they would be alright, even if something unexpected happens during the time of cold. Though it was not necessary since barely any monsters would dare attack the Lamians in their territory, still, at the very least, Rain wanted to make some defensive measures just in case.

He continued doing missions and quests to earn resources and gold. Though he only choose what kind of mission to do and the Lamians would be the ones to do it. It’s like telling them telepathically- or probably something like a Hive Worker mind-like connection. One press and the Lamians will know what to do being told to. It’s a strange feeling they said, but they only noticed it when they finished what they were supposed to do.

And since they didn’t complain, nor say anything about it, Rain had also accepted the strange connection with the Grimoire. He was focusing on developing the entire village for a while.

After finishing all the Daily Quests, he stop and turned towards Cyan, curios how she was doing. But the Slime Girl has yet to finish and is still in the process of absorbing the monster corpses. The Orc’s slowly disintegrating bodies inside her were slowly rotating around her body.

No matter how many times I see it, I still can’t get used to it. It looks like a washing machine. He mused. Now then, I guess, I should also take this time to cultivate.

Taking a deep breath, he sat cross-legged and began to channel the magic energy into his body for cultivation.

The simplest method of breathing is called [Energy Conduction]. It is a very simple technique but can be considered one of the most important parts of Cultivation. Only when one forms the so-called Magic Stream in the body and guides it to break through the meridians, one can be considered to step on the road to cultivation.

It sounds easy, but it’s not. He learned it first hand.

The more meridians you broke through, the more you will benefit. This is also the ruler to identify whether a person has talent. It can even be said that the opening of the meridian is like laying the foundation before setting up a high-rise building.

As long as the foundation is strong enough, a skyscraper can be built. It’s the basic fundamental of Cultivation.

According to the book of cultivation, people who practiced cultivation might be able to open one or two meridians easily, however, it doesn’t mean they would become immortal, or achieve a big success in Cultivation. As most of them were stuck in the 3rd or 4th Meridian, and couldn’t break through from there.

The more meridians opened, the harder it becomes to open another as well. The path of Cultivation is a thorny, hellish road of difficulties. Even the most talented people in the Cultivation History can only break through a single meridian after 2 to 3 years of cultivation training. And the least talented will take a dozen years, and perhaps even more. Thus, it can not only be said to be simply hard.

Well, in the first place, Cultivation was mainly created for those who are considered talentless- those that can be considered just ordinary people compared to elites or Chosen Ones. Thus, it’s like defying the heavens, or going against it, as without being given talent but still wanted to reach the heights of those who were considered Son of Heavens. Ordinary people, need to do the impossible to achieve that. It’s much harder than increasing one’s level.

When Rain started to circulate his cultivation method, the surrounding magic energy fiercely rushed into his body. He could feel that there was quite a lot of magic energy that suddenly entered his body, and even he could sense that his body was immediately full after a few moments of absorption, and circulation. And at this time, following the method that was engraved in his mind, he immediately began to move the gathered magical energy within his body, controlling it and rushing towards his own lower leg.

Using this gathered magical energy, he wanted to open up the next meridian in his body. Though, appeared like a classic cultivation method from a xianxia novel, the Body Cultivation Method he was practicing has some differences from them.

That’s what he had realized during his practice. Not only does it uses Magic Energy from the world, not inner power or those what people back in Earth called ‘Qi’ or ‘Innate Energy’, but also the main function was to strengthen the body using magic energy, and open all meridians so that one can easily absorb and use magic power at will.

Opening meridians can let magic power flow smoothly from one part of his body to another, and without any disturbance or obstacle. Thus, completing a complete, and perfect magic circuit that can only be seen on real, and innate magic beings.

Well, in simple terms, it’s like opening a clear pathway for the magic power to flow through, and in the process refining the cells, the flesh, the bones, organs, and everything through the magic power to obtain a body that is beyond human reach. Or the so-called [Body of Pure Magic], which is something only pure magical beings in this world possess. For example, the legendary Dragons or the Ancient Titans who ruled the world in the Age of the Gods.

Anyone who tries to cultivate this technique is trying to recreate those of Monsters of Legends. So it surely is not going to be easy.

Rain concentrated his mind and began to carefully search the meridians located in his calves. It was the next step for his Cultivation after having small success. Meridians from the feet to the head, he must open all of them slowly to reach the next stage of his cultivation.

Looking for it through a thin wisp of his magical energy, finally, he found an incomparably tiny meridian at the side of his leg, a corner that no one would normally pay attention to.

Found it…!

Now the next step is-

After he found the meridian, Rain let out a small smile, and then immediately controlled the stream of magical energy in his body and started moving towards the meridian pulse. He wanted to use the accumulated magic power to open up the meridian. He had already done it before, so he was already quite familiar with the method.

He was certain he could succeed on it when suddenly, things went out of control.

“Aaah!!”

Rain let out a surprised cry. It could be seen that the meridian at his calf area had exploded under the pressure of the magical energy. The meridian on his body, because it was just too small, could not even bear a little bit of his mana. The attempt caused an explosion when the tiny meridian was unable to endure the force of his magical energy.

The explosion of the energy channels, was not as if nothing had happened to him. When the meridian exploded, Rain also felt a slight pain from his body, coupled with the momentary numbness of his feet and legs.

Well, for a normal human it would have been much more serious. But his current physical body was not something to be underestimated. But at this time, Rain did not care about the little bit of pain that he felt from the failure. This was because his heart was filled with shock and grievance.

Damn chaos magic!

He couldn’t help but cursed in anger.

Uncontrollable, and easy to break. The most troublesome factor for any chaos elemental magic, making [Chaos] one of the most dangerous magic element in the world.

It has the most chances of going berserk, causing crazy destruction.

It was said that most Chaos-elemental energy users, either lose their sanity or become a destroyer- a killing machine who only knows how to kill, or kill themselves in the process. And Rain was not an exception among those Chaos Users. Even now, his chaotic magic power is causing him trouble!

With his ability and incredible control of magic power, he should be able to open the meridian without a problem. However, the moment he was about to succeed, the chaos magic power inside of him suddenly act wildly, like an enraged beast that was suddenly awakened, and disturb his concentration at the last moment, causing it to fail.

Due to his now powerful body, Rain was able to feel the problem of his chaotic magic power, less than before. It was to the point that he had already almost forgotten about it. However, it will still appear and cause problems from time to time.

With his chaotic but dense magic power, the durability of his meridians can’t still endure its onslaught. Though it wouldn’t be a problem in normal spell casting, opening meridians have become double the difficulty than normal. But he doesn’t have a choice but to accept it. There’s no solution for this, other than endure it. And this made him sigh in helplessness.

The road ahead is not a smooth, straight road, but one full of obstacles and hardship.

Rain calmed his chaotic energy, wanting to try again. This is not enough to make him give up. A small pain is nothing. However, as if he was about to control his mana again, suddenly-

“Hm? I didn’t think I would find a human in this kind of place,”

A simple yet elegant voice sounded all of a sudden. And most importantly, it seemed as if it had originated from right beside his ears, causing Rain to almost jump out of his skin.

Rain felt his nerves tighten. Then, he slowly calms down. This voice had shown no signs of emergence, however, it didn’t contain any hostility either.

Still, to think I hadn’t even sensed anything beforehand. Even Drova can’t easily do that.

However, this person did it!

He frowned, and his perception sharpened.

Doesn’t this indicate that this person’s power is far above my own?

Rain – who was in the middle of meditation – was greatly alarmed in his heart. However, he somehow controlled himself, and solemnly asked, "Who’s there? Don’t you think it’s too early to play ghosts?"

A burst of mild laughter pervaded in the surroundings as a man in a blue robe appeared less than 30 feet ahead of where he was. And just like him, the man was curiously watching him as well. His gaze was full of undisguised suspicion and interest, one that onlookers have when they saw exotic animals in the zoo for the first time.

"Little brother, relax I don’t have any ill-intention,"

The blue-robed man noticed the solemn look on Rain’s face and said, seemly trying to lighten the atmosphere.

“But still, I can’t help but admired little brother, your power is quite something for as young as you are. How admirable… how interesting,”

“… …”

Rain frowned. He dislikes being treated like an animal in the zoo. And most of all, he dislikes being looked at by those eyes that seemed capable of seeing through him as if he was an open book.

“Clearly not as interesting as you are, sir. But who are you?” Rain snarled in unconcealed annoyance.

The man in blue armor smiled in amusement and didn’t seem to care about his hostility. And this annoyed Rain even more.

And yet, he didn’t know that this was an encounter that can only be called fate.

Unfortunately, both he and the man in blue don’t know that now.